1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to a location awareness technology and, more particularly, to a location awareness apparatus, a vehicle having the same, and a method for controlling the apparatus to improve accuracy of location awareness.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An autonomous vehicle is a so-called intelligent vehicle that typically has at least one of an ultrasound sensor, image sensor, laser sensor, and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor and uses information from the sensor(s) to drive automatically without intervention of the driver. The vehicle can collect information relating to the driving of the vehicle with the at least one sensor and recognize objects such as obstacles located ahead. As a result, the vehicle may prevent accidents by supporting the driver's awareness of road conditions, particularly when the driver is not aware of the road condition due to the driver's carelessness, mistake, vision limitations, etc.
With the development of location awareness, sensor, and antenna technologies, intelligent vehicle receive not only guidance and traffic jam notification information but also nearby vehicles' driving information, road condition information, and message information between vehicles through services from the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). Such information can supplement other information and can be used to further control the driving of the vehicle. Further, intelligent vehicles can use a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) for location awareness. The GNSS is a system that uses an artificial satellite orbiting the earth to provide information regarding locations, altitudes, speeds, etc., of objects on the earth. The system can determine a location having the resolution of a minimum of 1 m or less, and is widely applied for military use and even in the private sector, such as guidance of locations or land surveying, emergency relief, communications of a means of transportation, such as aircrafts, ships, vehicles, etc.
The typical GNSS is configured to include a GNSS receiver for receiving signals from one or more GNSS satellites and a terrestrial monitoring station, and determine a location from a distance to the GNSS satellite by receiving signals transmitted from the GNSS satellite at the GNSS receiver. However, such location awareness using artificial satellites can suffer from low accuracy when communication with the satellite is cut off, e.g., while the vehicle is located in a city downtown, in a forest of tall buildings, or in a shadow region in the mountain.